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Polish Jews Being Repatriated from U.S.S.R. Bringing 300 Torahs to Polish Communities

April 19, 1946
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Polish Jews who are now being repatriated from the U.S.S.R. to Poland are bringing with them 300 torahs in addition to many other religious books, which they acquired during their stay in the Soviet Union.

Representatives of Jewish groups recently asked the mixed Polish-Soviet repatriation commission for permission to take the torahs and prayer books with them when they were repatriated. The commission agreed and issued orders to that effect to all frontier stations.

The majority of the torahs were obtained in the Altai region of southern Siberia. Many purchases were made in the cities of Irkutsk and Tobolsk. Some of the religious books were donated by the local Jewish residents. Polish Jews who lived in Bukhara are bringing with them 30 torahs, most of which were the gift of Bukhara Jews. The torahs have a great historical value. Jews from Samarkand are returning with more than 50 torahs.

More than 1,400 Jewish children from Polish children’s homes in the U.S.S.R. are among the repatriates, the Central Committee of Polish Jews announced here. They will be placed in Jewish institutions in Poland. A new evacuation home for Polish and Jewish Polish orphans living with Russian families has been established at Zagorek, near Moscow. From Zagorek the children, who are chiefly Jewish, will be sent in parties to institutions in Poland.

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